Henry Cort

		Henry Cort Inventor - Creator of puddled iron - Father of iron trade
		This page is part of a website based on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. The creator and owner of the site was Eric Alexander who passed away. The site is now hosted by Hans Weebers Please contact me with any comments or queries.

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Daniel Guion and family

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Sandwich and Middleton

He now held this office for eleven years, during which time his conduct was as great a scandal to public as it had all along been to private morality. Throughout his long administration he rendered the business of the admiralty subservient to the interests of his party and employed the vast patronage of the office as an engine for bribery and political jobbery.

From assessment of the period as First Lord of the Admiralty of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich in original DNB.

His austere impartiality in promoting only on merit and refusing the requests of the influential earned him many enemies.

From Oxford DNB entry for John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich.

The fortunes of Henry Cort, and indeed of anyone connected with the Navy at the time of the American War of Independence, are bound to have some connection with the career of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich.

He is said to have originated the snack that bears his name, but his influence is far more pervasive - malign, some would say.

Like his ancestor, the First Earl (cousin of Samuel Pepys whose career in naval administration he promoted), Sandwich has a great interest in naval affairs, and serves as First Lord of the Admiralty for most of the American war.

His recent biographer Nicholas Rodger reminds us that he is a patron of James Cook, a champion of Handel, and a friend of actor David Garrick.

He is also Master of Trinity House and serves on the Board of Greenwich Hospital.

His poor reputation probably dates from 1763, when he is instrumental in getting John Wilkes expelled from the Commons. To both supporters and detractors, Wilkes's sin is to publish details of parliamentary proceedings, but Sandwich builds a case against him on other grounds.

Then in 1779 comes the action against Admiral Keppel, followed rapidly by the murder of Sandwich's mistress. After that it is easy enough to blame him for all the Navy's shortcomings. Some of the stories are quite bizarre.

It was a long story of administrative jobbery and corruption. Large sums of money were appropriated for the repair of ships that were rotting in harbour and never had a penny spent on them. Estimates were falsified, ships were counted twice in the Weekly Progress Lists, and ships were put into commission to please political supporters when there was no intention of fitting them for active service.

From James, The British Navy in Adversity: A Study of the War of American Independence (London 1926).

One act by Sandwich with undeniably benign consequences is his selection of Charles Middleton as Comptroller of the Navy.

An obscure Scot with an undistinguished service career, Middleton was a surprising choice, but none ever better vindicated Sandwich's judgement, for Middleton became the outstanding naval administrator of the century - though he was always a difficult colleague, cantankerous, ego-centric, and disloyal, and only Sandwich was able to manage him successfully.

From Oxford DNB entry for John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich.

To sum up Sir Charles Middleton's true character, he is a person of very great abilities is indefatigable in business, but cannot bear any person to know anything of it but himself, and to acquire this character with the King and Ministers has basely privately and treacherously depreciated that of his brother Commissioners. By his manner he appeared to be a religious man, but by his actions he proved himself the contrary in various particulars thereof, and tho' the son of exciseman in Scotland, he frequently tho' privately observed to people how low bred and what poor parents most of his colleagues in office were. In short he was in general a deceitful proud despicable character,

From George Marsh's diary.

Middleton's reputation as Comptroller rests on his promotion of two key innovations, copper bottoms and carronades, which together bring great advantage to the Navy over its adversaries in France and Spain.

To reduce the time committed to refitting Middleton proposed that ships of the line should be sheathed with copper which, unlike the fir currently used, resisted the adherence of weed and mollusc.

From Oxford DNB entry for Sir Charles Middleton

The carronade had an immediate demoralizing effect on opponents and certainly added to the potential firepower of the British before the peace was signed in 1783.

From Oxford DNB entry for Sir Charles Middleton

On one occasion in his earlier career he uses Henry Cort as his agent. Later his role as Comptroller gives him responsibility for overseeing the Navy's tests on Cort's products. His signature is the first on letters approving them.

He plays a part in the Evangelical movement and the campaign to abolish slavery. He becomes a baronet in 1781 and a rear admiral in 1787. In 1806. as he nears 80, the resignation of Lord Melville (a distant cousin) precipitates him into the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, with a seat in the Lords as Baron Barham. In this role he is credited with the manoeuvres that culminate in the Battle of Trafalgar.

RELATED TOPICS

Main sources of information

18th century politics

John Becher and the American War

Thomas Morgan and the American War

Shelburne, Parry and associates

Dundas and Trotter

The Arethusa, Sandwich and Keppel

The 1782 Jamaica convoy

Sinking of the Royal George

Fact, error and conjecture

The pages on this site are copied from the original site of Eric Alexander (henrycort.net) with his allowance.
Eric passed away abt 2012
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